Bernie Sanders gave an obligatory “endorsement” of Billary Clinton yesterday in New Hampshire. Anyone who has been following the Democratic presidential primary campaign knows that it was much like a forced confession or a hostage’s forced statement* and so shouldn’t slam Bernie for being a “sellout.” Besides, we progressives will get the last laugh anyway; if the widely and deeply despised Billary doesn’t lose in November, she’ll most likely be a one-term president.

Anyone who has been paying attention for the past year knows that Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Billary Clinton yesterday is bullshit.

That is, just as Billary is a Democrat in name only, it was an endorsement in name only.

As I’ve noted before, Bernie made a deal with the devil, so to speak; he ran as a Democratic Party presidential candidate in order to avoid the hurdles that independent and third-party presidential candidates must try to clear (and I’ve always been OK with that choice of his), but because he decided to run as a Democrat, he would have been widely perceived as a major asshole if he hadn’t endorsed (at least via lip service) the eventual winner of the party’s nomination if that winner was not he.

I watched all nine Democratic Party presidential primary debates (and would have watched the tenth and final one had crooked Billary not reneged upon it); I have no doubt that Bernie Sanders in his heart does not actually endorse Billary for president (although I have little doubt that he doesn’t equate her with Donald Trump; there are degrees of bad, which of course someone who is as intelligent as Bernie is recognizes).

Bernie’s endorsement of Billary remains lukewarm. In an e-mail to his supporters from yesterday titled “Forever forward,” he wrote (or at least it’s attributed to him):

… In terms of the presidential election this November, there is no doubt that the election of Donald Trump as president would be a devastating blow to all that we are fighting for. His openly bigoted and pro-billionaire campaign could precipitate the same decades-long rightward shift in American politics that happened after the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. That rightward shift after Reagan’s election infected not just politics as a whole but led to the ascendancy of the corporatist wing of the Democratic Party — an era from which we are still recovering.

I cannot in good conscience let that happen.

To have all of the work we have done in elevating our progressive ideals be dashed away by a complete Republican takeover of Washington — a takeover headed by a candidate [who] demonizes Latinos, Muslims, women, African Americans, veterans, and others — would be unthinkable.

Today, I endorsed Hillary Clinton to be our next president. I know that some of you will be disappointed with that decision. But I believe that, at this moment, our country, our values, and our common vision for a transformed America, are best served by the defeat of Donald Trump and the election of Hillary Clinton. …

To me, that says it all: Bernie makes it clear that Trump must be defeated. He never has indicated that Billary is his dream candidate for president, but basically has indicated that she is the lesser of the two evils, and I love that he mentioned “the ascendancy of the corporatist wing of the Democratic Party,” even though Billary (“Billary” as in “Bill and Hillary,” this time) has (have) been an integral part of that ascendancy.

Bernie Sanders did a kick-ass job in his run for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, but he fell short against a candidate who has been running for the White House at least since 2000, when she carpet-baggingly was elected a U.S. senator for the state of New York, and who has coasted on her surname her entire political career.

But it always has been about more than Bernie; it has been about the progressive principles and vision that he has espoused, and those principles and that vision live on. They existed before him and they will continue to exist when he’s gone.

While we progressives condescendingly are told “Let’s Grow Up, Liberals” — um, I don’t call myself a “liberal” because I equate the term “liberal” with faux progressives, such as the limousine liberals and the Billarybots (many but not all of whom also are limousine liberals, since they don’t all have the money), but I call myself a progressive — the fact is that the members of the same liberal echo chamber who conveniently have ignored how widely despised Billary Clinton is among the entire American electorate (yes, it won’t actually be only Democratic Party hacks voting for president in November) still have their heads up their asses.

Per Huffington Post, Billary’s unfavorable rating right now is 56.4 percent, while Trump’s is 59.8 percent, and Billary’s favorable rating is only 40.1 percent, while Trump’s is 36.7 percent. Billary is under water by 16.3 percentage points, while Trump is under water by 23.1 percentage points.

Even scarier are the match-up polls between Billary and Trump.

The Huffington Post’s average of recent match-up polls between Billary and Trump puts Billary at only 4.4 percentage points ahead of Trump nationwide, while Real Clear Politics’ average of those match-up polls puts Billary at only 4.3 percentage points ahead. (If Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson are thrown in — and both of them indeed are running for president — Billary’s lead over The Donald shrinks to 4 percentage points.)

Billary got a boost of a few percentage points after it became clear that Bernie lost the nomination after the June 7 primaries, but she since has lost that little bump, perhaps because of the fact that although she very apparently won’t be indicted for her home-brewed e-mail server, it’s crystal clear to the electorate how slimy and slippery she is.

Fact is, a President Trump is a very real possibility.

In my lifetime, the only time that a party held onto the White House for a third term was in 1988, when George H. W. Bush won after Ronald Reagan’s two terms. We’ll see if Billary Clinton can break the usual pattern of a party being able to hold on to the White House for only two terms while her favorability rating is in the toilet by double digits.

And Bush the First was a one-termer, which is what I surmise Billary will be if she actually is elected in November. (If you hate her now — and statistically, you do — wait until after she’s been in the White House!)

Speaking of The Georges, to anyone who asserts that Americans couldn’t possibly be so incredibly fucking stupid as to allow Donald Trump to sit in the Oval Office, we need go back only to former “President” George W. Bush to be reminded of Americans’ capacity for such fucktardation. (Yes, Gee Dubya stole office, but Amuricans just let him; they did not take to the streets with torches and pitchforks, as they should have over a blatantly stolen presidential election.)

So gloat now, Billarybots, and tell us Berners to grow up and to get real. We’ll see how well Billary does in November, and, again, if she survives November, will she manage to get a second term, or will she be like a female Jimmy Carter?

… But there appeared to be little natural chemistry between Clinton and Sanders and their body language was noticeably stiff. The two avoided physical contact after first walking on stage together, and Sanders, in his 30-minute speech, repeatedly mentioned Clinton by name without acknowledging that she was standing next to him looking on.

After concluding his speech, Sanders appeared to move in for a handshake — which Clinton ignored by stretching out her arms and offering a hug, instead.

“We are joining forces to defeat Donald Trump!” Clinton declared. “I can’t help but say how much more enjoyable this election is going to be when we are on the same side. You know what? We are stronger together!” …

That chemistry and body language tell it all.

Of course Billary is all too happy to try to pander to Bernie’s supporters; after all, he won 22 states and 45.6 percent of the pledged delegates, the delegates earned in the primary elections and caucuses. That 45.6 percent shows what a weak candidate Billary is within her own party and among Democratic leaners.

My best guess is that Billary’s polling against Trump might go up a few points as a result of Bernie’s forced endorsement, but that it will go right back down again.

My advice to you remains: Don’t vote for Billary if you don’t want to (I’m not voting for her!) and if you live in a solidly blue or solidly red state whose November outcome already is assured (as I do [I live in California]). Remember that we don’t have a popular vote for president, but that we have the bullshit winner-takes-all Electoral College.

When the Billarybots tell you that if you don’t vote for Billary you’re helping Trump, that actually depends upon which state you vote in.

This November I plan to vote for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, as I did in 2012 (I wasn’t going to be punk’d by President Hopey-Changey like I was in 2008). And that won’t help Trump.